CHAPTER TEN

Margaret couldn’t believe what was happening around her. Again feeling trapped in the four walls she was facing something that seemed similar. In front of her laid the tall beast prince in all her beastly glory she was still not used to. The door and windows were closed shut just letting in enough of light.
“Margaret… ” Eliana said slowly and carefully not wanting to spook Margaret more than she already was.
“Eliana what is going on?” He was going to kill her when she next saw him Eliana had said. He was being kept locked, unfed, trained to kill her from what she had gather from the chat.
“I freed him. However it’s only a little time before she realizes.” The white witch spoke, still being careful. Margaret still took a careful step back.
“Is he sleeping?” She asked looking at the dangerous beast lying in front of her.
“I knocked him out using a spell. ” Eliana said letting the words sink in. Margaret let out a breath of relief and unguarded herself just a little.
“Margaret, dear, I need your help with something..” Eliana spoke maintaining the careful tone. Margaret couldn’t help but wonder if the past few days were a dream. Was she really free of that wretched manor?
“What do you want Eliana?” Margaret said wanting to hear what the witch had to say.
“Did you read the book?” The witch asked urgently.
“A chapter?” Eliana shook her head and brought out the book.
“That would have to do for now it seems. I would like you to have the book. ” Eliana said opening the book and flipping through pages until she came to a specific map.
“Look here now. I need you to save a life. ” Eliana spoke looking Margaret in the eye. Margaret gulped.
“How do you propose I do that? Whose?”
“Adam’s. I need you to make a trip to old Amara and Vinairian Border. Vinair captured most of Amara and since then the whole world has been divided and conquered many times. This map here is the very first. In no way does it resembles the map of the kingdom today. However one thing hasn’t changed. A thing I should have persuaded long ago. ” Eliana spoke mournfully. “You both aren’t in love. If the things continue as they do right now then in three weeks time the Prince would be dead. I know you don’t even remotely fancy him nor do you have any motivation to help him but please Margaret. I don’t want him dead. There is a group of wizards in the mountain there. It is said one of them has mastered the nature of magic.
I can not go for I must keep my cousin busy. You, however, can. If we could understand the nature of the curse more, we have more chance of undoing it without you both needing to fall in love. ”
“You.. You still love him!” Margaret exclaimed in realization. Eliana did not respond. Margaret knew even if Eliana wanted to admit it it was no good. It wouldn’t break the spell from what she knows. No rosa was plucked for her.
“That matters not Margaret. Would.. Would you be kind enough to do this?” To go on an adventure? Other own? Margaret couldn’t have asked for more. An adventure out side of the four walls wasn’t that what she had been yearning for all her life? However Margaret couldn’t help but pause for a thought. Would it be the right course of action? Over thinking has made seldom wondrous opportunity go to waste. If the beast was freed from his curse she could go home. If she doesn’t do this, he would die.
If she did however do this and then head home, she would have an adventure, a life would be saved and she wouldn’t have wasted her life away inside four walls of a Manor feeling pathetic.
“Alright. I will do this. What do I need to do?” Margaret said finally making her mind. She was more excited for an adventure beyond what she has known till date rather than saving a life.
“My stars! Thank you so much Margaret. You have my thanks as a witch. Do this and you would never lack anything in your life.” Eliana said making a silent promise.
“I would try my best. ”
Margaret was very uncomfortable. She had been taking deep breaths for quite a while to relax herself. Now, here she stood in front of the bed where the beast layed feverish.
Eliana said to tend to him until he wakes and leave afterwards to the journey beyond. The once threatening person was down asleep and so vulnerable that she did not know what to do. Stars! Why?
As she looked at the pale, unclothed and marred body of a person who was once a prince, Margaret didn’t know what to feel. She understood the reasoning for his actions after looking at him carefully. If he hadn’t blackmailed her there was no way she would have stayed. Nearly two hundred years with no one to have dear or hold close. Not a single glance without disgust must have been terrible. She was used to seeing wounds and wounded. She did work as a nurse before this but the ones on him were bad enough to make even her flinch. She could not start to imagine the pain that his pale skin hid beneath it. If she could help him, she probably would without expecting a gain. Yes, he was terribly rude and yes, she disliked him most of the time but seeing him as he was at that moment something stirred in Margaret. It was a need to save that rushed through her body as she looked, for the first time, at the beast as a man. A man that had been through a lot. Margaret wondered if they were strangers that met in different circumstances then things would have been different.
Margaret took the wet off white cloth dipped in water and exchanged it with the similar cloth on the Lord’s forehead. The feverish Lord was paler than before, sweating hard and burning. The cold cloth that was previously put on felt warm in Margaret’s hand. She was going to nurse him back to health she swore. Letting the cloth dripped and knowing there was nothing more she could do at the moment she picked up the book on the world’s history.
According to Eliana her trip involved travelling to Etone, the city of scholars, and searching for a knowledgeable person who can point them to the current location of an old wizard clan. Eliana said that she hadn’t met the person in years but he was the only hope of finding the clan. Eliana did know the clan was on the border of Amara and Valeria but according to her the geography had shifted since. The only person with even a little clue was the person she hadn’t seen in years, someone who owed her.
Margaret wondered how she would take the lord without him being noticed. His tall figure, slender pale body, red eyes and veins that throb on the surface along with marks on the chest that looked like burns were attention seekers. If Eliana was to be believed he also couldn’t stand the sun for much however the sun and the moon affected the people in the manor more than they did the lord himself. According to her that’s why she turned Toby invisible before the moonlight disintigrated him. Unfortunately he can’t revert back until the spell is broken and is hence a resident of the castle till the spell on the lord breaks.
Margaret looked at the thick book K in her head going quickly through the index knowing not where to read. She didn’t have much time to learn the whole book and needed the best information possible.
Tales of the Golden Kingdom, Kingdom of fire and snow.
1-Geography
2- Families
3- Political Influences
4- New Era, Age of Magic Acceptance
5- Formations of new Kingdoms
6- Wars
“I see you have picked up the history book,” Eliana spoke making Margaret jump up straight in her seat.
“Aye. I find this intriguing. Why haven’t I heard of this?” Margaret questioned. The talks of the older kingdoms and neighboring ones are rarer than dragons in her town and even in the city she lived.
“The history in your lap is also known as forgotten history. A lot changed in the last two hundred years. One of the reason was because this kingdom’s next in line was cursed. ” Eliana said looking down at her white gown that matched her hair.
“That makes sense,” Margaret said still unsure. Eliana too heard the uncertainty in her voice but didn’t say anything more on the topic.
“Has there been any change in his disposition?” Eliana asked worried. She stepped forward slowly trying not to wake him up and cursing herself for conversing with Margaret in the room where the lord rested.
“Apart from from occasional mumble of words I could not understand nothing changed.” Margaret said standing up from her seat and offering it to the older woman.
“Mumbling? Hmm.. Can you please get me the herbs kept on the kitchen counter?” The witch said after a minute of thought. Like Margaret, Eliana too changed the cloth on the Lord’s head. From what Margaret could grasp from Eliana’s reaction, the fever hadn’t gone down one bit.
“Yes, of course.” Margaret said giving the two privacy.
Elena was furious. Her cousin sister had stolen the prince from right under her nose! It was a hindrance in her plan to kill off the ever persistent Margaret. Elena had calculated that the girl would slowly lose her mind in the castle stuck between the power of her sister and herself. However that did not happen. Occasional passing out was all so much magic around her did to her mortal body. Elena didn’t take well that the prince was paying her attention. Hearing the girl talk? The prince wasn’t suppose to do that. Elena had been far more annoyed with the girl since the incident when he let the girl out of the manor. He wasn’t supposed to be nice. The prince was supposed to be looking at the girl as a hope that he can never achieve. Torment others like Elena was tormented. The world should know the misery, starting with the prince. Why was she the only one left bitter when everything ended?

The winter outside was storming like the winter inside her heart. No matter how many spells she cast to locate her sister or the girl or the prince himself, all the attempts were futile. She needed to do something even though her sister couldn’t break the spell. No way in this world would she let the last three weeks of the Prince’s life be that of leisure. She wouldn’t have him hiding in his castle this time around. She would make him cry like he made her the past hundreds of years. She won’t let his finger go off the spindle so easily.
She remembered all the time that they spent together and the time they didn’t. How she would watch the prince from a far hoping one day he would realize. But alas, all he ever saw her was as a childhood friend, One of the twins or the captain’s daughter. He saw her as a friend too but his friendship with her brother Eric was far greater. Then came Eliana. It seems like the prince would love or be friends with everyone in her family but her! The one who loves him the most. Even their father treated him like a son and he treated him like an uncle. Then why? Why was she the only one passing as an ordinary friend? The one who had to watch from the sidelines as the cousin she loved dearly is being sweeped off of her feet by the man she loved leaving her alone with nothing. Was she not pretty enough? Was she not womanly enough? Why couldn’t her charms woe him like hers did? All the girl who saw him would always fall. He was that beautiful. One by one she had seen the prince make girls fall for him but them why was Eliana different? Why was he affected by her rather than it just being a play?
She wasn’t planning to play nice after he betrayed her like that. She would have her revenge. She would see everything dear to him destroyed and the only salvation at the end of his life would be her. Then, at that time when his life hangs by a thread, she would see if she wants to play with him or let him die like countless others in the grand plan.
Dear sister Eliana, you are not taking her prey away from her so easily.